Unbroken (27 page)

I stand up, stretching and walking over to him. I lean against his hard body, wrapping my arms around him from behind. He relaxes immediately beneath my touch, and he turns around, metal tongs in hand, to embrace me fully. I soften, melting into him. He holds me for a long while when a movement catches my eye just over the other side of the fence.

A smile creeps up on his face, and mine fades. I glare at him over Brody’s shoulder, and he scowls, seeing that I’m wrapped up in someone else.

Fucking Maddox.

“Hello? Sabrina.” Brody pulls away from me, tipping my chin up and demanding my attention. “What’s wrong?”

I don’t respond. I can’t. But I cut my eyes in Maddox’s direction, and Brody turns around, too. When his gaze lands on Maddox, he turns back around to face me.

“Who’s that?” he asks.

“My ex.”

Brody frowns. “You didn’t tell me your ex lives across the street.”

I shake my head.

“I didn’t because he doesn’t. He goes to college over an hour away. He comes down sometimes… Why is he
here
?”

Brody glances at him again, pulling his lower lip in between his teeth as a pensive expression settles in his features. He places the tongs on the table beside the grill, then looks at Mom. Mom’s hands go in the air in surrender, and she juts her chin in my direction. My shoulders droop in defeat, and I grab Brody’s hand, leading him toward the inside of the house.

Walking into the kitchen, I prop myself up on the counter and close my eyes.

“I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say things didn’t end too well with you and your ex?” Brody asks before I have the chance to speak.

“You could say that,” I reply dryly.

“Explain, then.”

Jesus, where to start? With how we met? How I fell for him? How he fooled me into thinking he was one kind of person, and turned out to be someone totally different? How long it took me to stop crying once things were finally over between us? God, I knew this was going to come eventually, but I didn’t expect for it to happen this way.

“His name is Maddox. He and I dated for a year and a half. My parents liked him a lot, and he loved my sisters. If Bianca needed help with her homework, he helped her. If Grace needed extra practice on her spelling words, he took the initiative to test her. If Mom was looking tired, he volunteered to watch Mila if I was unavailable. But then this one day…” I shake my head, unsure of quite how to go on. “Bianca is bipolar. She was diagnosed a few years ago. Some days are good and some are bad. You haven’t seen a bad day just yet. This particular day, she was feeling particularly blue. I don’t know which episodes are which half the time, but I know my sister, and I know when she’s not herself. Daddy chalked it up to her having an episode, and he made sure to give her her medication for the day, and let her sleep. My parents had left me with Bianca and Mila, and I was happy to stay home to make sure Bee was okay. Maddox and I had been arguing, and he came over to try and talk things out. But he was drunk. I couldn’t let him go to his parents’ house, because his dad would cut him off without question. And I damn sure wasn’t going to let him drive back to school. So I took him up to my room, put him to sleep, and went downstairs to feed Mila. We were playing. And I lost track of time. I put Mila in her high chair and was about to serve her when I heard a noise come from upstairs. Something just
told
me to go up there…” I shake my head, unable to fight the tears threatening to spill over. “He had his tongue down her throat. She wasn’t even
awake.
Her body was limp as shit. Hell, she could have been dead for all he knew, and he was literally on top of her, and he had his tongue down her throat. I took a picture. For evidence. I wanted my parents to see it so they could press charges with more than just my testimony. He saw me, and he was unapologetic. He asked if I wanted to
join
him…”

I don’t get to finish my story. Don’t get to tell him what happened after my parents got home, or how Bianca refused to place a restraining order on him, or how his parents tried to deny what he’d done. I don’t get to say any of that because within seconds, I’m racing after Brody who has bolted out of the kitchen and through the front door.

When I make it to the porch, all I see are fists flying, and all I hear is profanities spewing from that gorgeous mouth of his. He’s beating Maddox to a pulp, but Maddox got a few hits in. The thought makes me sick, thinking of any harm coming to him. He’s yelling at the top of his lungs punch after punch, and I can’t bear to watch. I cover my eyes and grimace, wondering why I told him that story. I should have known how he would react to it. He does things first and asks questions later.

“You…son…of a…bitch!” Brody shouts between punches. He grunts, and the sound of fist connecting with flesh seemingly echoes. Maddox moans from his place below Brody on the concrete, earning him a punch to the head. “Mother…fucker!”

It takes my father, my mother, and his brother to drag him off of Maddox’s body. And Brody is fucking heated. He’s fuming and shaking with rage. Maddox lies on the ground, curled into a ball, and Brody kicks at the air, struggling against my parents’ hold. When he’s fully calmed down and Maddox’s father comes over to lead him inside, I drag Brody into the house and deposit him on the couch.

I’m so frustrated with him, so pissed that he went after Maddox. What was his purpose? To prove a point? Which one?

I am not the kind of girl who thinks violence is attractive. His home life was full of violence, so why would he willingly invite more into his new life, the peaceful one we’re trying to give him?

I grab an ice pack from the freezer and press it to his face—a little forcefully, which I don’t notice until he winces. I regret it for a split second, but I’m frustrated. I’m not this damsel in distress who needs someone to fight my battles for me. I sit on the coffee table so I’m directly in front of him.

“You shouldn’t have done that. I can handle Maddox—I
have
been handling him for six months now. You punching him out didn’t do a Goddamn thing,” I say through gritted teeth.

He stares up at me from behind his ice pack. “’Course it did. It made me feel better.”

I shake my head. Brody hitting Maddox wasn’t going to solve anything. All it did was ruin a perfectly good day, bring old demons up for Bianca and me, and possibly put an assault charge or a restraining order on his hands. I groan at the thought. Maddox was the one in the wrong, and Brody’s the one who could potentially get in trouble for it.

I stand up, angrily pacing the living room. My parents have gone back outside to deal with the aftermath of Brody’s outburst, and I fold my arms over my chest.

“You wanna know what I don’t get? You’ll punch out a guy for my sister, who you’ve only known about a month. But you let your dad kick the shit out of you whenever the mood strikes. Why the Hell is that?”

He shakes his head and slams the ice pack on the table. “First of all, that’s not fucking fair. I let him do what he wants because I’d rather it was me than Cason or Dalis…or you. I can deal with the pain of being hurt by him, but knowing any of you got hurt knowing there’s something I can do to stop it, that’s unacceptable to me. I care about her. And I care about you. You guys are my family now. And she didn’t deserve that, to be taken advantage of when she was in no state to object or consent. You didn’t deserve that, to be betrayed by someone you so clearly trusted without a doubt in the world. That Maddox guy is a fucking snake, that’s what he is.” He pauses, shaking his head. “And second of all, because. Because Bianca is worth fighting for.
You’re
worth fighting for. I’m not.”

I take a seat in front of him again and take his face in my hands.

“If you think that’s true for even one second, you’re even stupider than I thought.” I lean forward and kiss his jaw, which is starting to swell before I place the ice pack there once more. “You lay down your life for everyone else, but who is there to pick you up?”

He’s got this look on his face, the one he gets when he’s in really deep thought about something, and he gives me a timid glance. “You are.”

In spite of myself, in spite of the fact that I’m pissed at him, in spite of all that’s transpired since we got together, and in the past week alone, I smile. I do it because that’s not an answer I was expecting from a guy who rarely shares his feelings, and he’s doing it with me.

“No more fighting,” I say, trying and failing to contain my smile.

…

TONIGHT, HE COMES TO MY ROOM. He looks…broken in every sense of the word. He looks rugged and exhausted, and the minute the door is closed and locked behind him, he starts relieving himself of his clothes. I sit up, staring at him. I stand up and decide I’m going to help him strip. I grab the hemline of his wifebeater and drag it up and over his head. Once it’s off, he grabs my shoulders and thrusts me against the wall.

“I need you so bad, Sabrina,” he whispers beside my ear.

I lick my lips in anticipation. “I’m yours.”

Hungrily, he devours my mouth completely. His hands grip my ass as he lifts me off the ground. I’m wearing nothing more than a t-shirt, and while normally, he’s quick to see me naked, he leaves it on this time.

“Arms around me,” he groans against my mouth. I gaze up at him in anticipation and he releases a strangled breath. “I can’t be gentle this time. This week has been…I don’t even know how I’m still standing…how I’m still breathing knowing what I know.” He watches my lips before bending forward and kissing me roughly, biting my lower lip. His tongue swoops in, seizing me, claiming me, making me his. My hands come up to grip his hair and my legs wrap around his waist as he pins me to the wall. “I’m going to fuck you fast and hard, and I need you not to make a sound. The only thing I want to hear is ‘stop’ if it gets to be too much. And I promise on my life I will. But I need you this way…just once…just for today. Okay?”

I don’t know if I can give him what he needs, if I can let him have me how he needs me without being pushed to my breaking point. But I’m willing to try, with him, for him. His words, the raw emotion coming from them slay me. The only other time he’s been this open with me was yesterday, and the speech he gave to break the standoff.

He licks his lips, hungry, expectant, as he awaits my answer. I press a kiss to the corner of his mouth, needing a moment of tenderness.

I nod, and a second later, he slams into me, filling me completely. My hands fall from their place on his neck and clutch at his back. My nails dig into his skin, and I let my head loll against his shoulder as he thrusts within me repeatedly. This Brody needs me on a primal level, and more than anything, I have to give him what he needs, because I didn’t know I needed it as well until right this second. I can barely breathe as gasps of pleasure escape my lips and his pace quickens. He’s not holding back, but he’s not being selfish either. A hand comes down between us, his skilled fingers manipulating me, bending me to his will.

He pulls out completely, then thrusts deep inside me, and I feel him tremble with need. I hold onto him for dear life as he brings me to the edge, pushing faster, harder, deeper, taking exactly what he needs and giving me what I so desperately want. Release.

Ecstasy rolls over me before I know it, and he moans against my neck as he quivers with his own release.

His breathing labors, and I can’t even find my breath, trying to figure out what the Hell that was as we separate and he carries me from the wall, back to my bed. We lie down together, high on life and love and desire. I rest my head against his chest as his arms encircle me.

“Thank you,” he murmurs. A low, humorless laugh erupts from his mouth and I use what strength is left in my body to turn my head in his direction. “After this week, it seems silly to leave for a week like everything is peaches and cream. Like there aren’t real world problems to deal with. I don’t want to run.”

As much as what he’s saying makes sense, I have to disagree with him.

“If anything, I think we deserve some time off after this week. We deserve to be teenagers for a few days. Near-rapist ex-boyfriends and abusive fathers be damned. We need to get away, if only to have some sense of normalcy for once in our hectic lives.”

He nods slowly, but I can tell he needs some convincing. But I can’t be the one to convince him. I’m scared. Scared of what repercussions we’ll have to deal with if Maddox decides to press charges. And as bad as it sounds, that’s honestly the least of our worries.

I decide that after all that happened as a result of keeping quiet before, it’s best if I just tell Brody the truth about how I feel.

“Babe,” I whisper.

“Hmm?” he asks.

I take a calming breath. “What are we going to do about your dad?”

He’s tense, and within reason, to be honest. I know how afraid he is of him, and the danger is all the more real this time because his dad was able to get to me. Hell, I walked right into his clutches.

“He’s not going to lay another fucking hand on you, that’s for sure,” he says through gritted teeth. “He’s never going to hurt you, or anyone I care about ever again.”

TWENTY TWO